The new channel offerings were introduced last week to customers in local communities including Elburn, Kaneville, Maple Park and Sugar Grove, as well as customers in northwestern Kane County, DeKalb County and other counties to the south and west.

Mediacom spokeswoman Phyllis Peters said the addition of the new HD channels has allowed Mediacom to all but eliminate older analog signals from its bandwidth.

“All channels 22 and higher are all digital now,” Peters said.

Analog broadcasts will continue to be transmitted on Mediacom lines for local TV stations, Peters said.

To accommodate customers with televisions incapable of decoding HD signals, Mediacom has distributed digital adapters to its customers to ensure all customers still can watch their programming of choice.

Peters said the transition to all digital signals on most channels will free bandwidth to allow Mediacom to further increase broadband Internet speeds in coming months.

“We now have the capacity to do so much more,” she said.

She said no dates have been set for those improvements. But she said Mediacom is estimating it soon could double its broadband speeds.